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 Posted:   Jul 13, 2016 - 4:48 PM   
 By:   joan hue   (Member)

I have always admired excellent actors who can inhabit a role by using appropriate, believable accents. It is a talent that I greatly admire and envy.

I think the Queen in America for accents is Meryl Streep. She always sounds perfect with her adopted accents.

My other kudos go to British and Swedish actors.

Benedict Cumberbatch did a fine Bostonian accent in BLACK MASS. Tom Hiddleston played Hank Williams in I SAW THE LIGHT and perfected a solid Alabama accent. I didn’t hear their British roots in either movie.

Three Swedish actors always amaze me. First there is Stellan Skarsgard who had made many American movies and sounds American in all of them. I would have never known he was Swedish except for his name. His son, Alexander Skarsgard, has done True Blood and other American movies and sounds American. His British accent in Tarzan was a bit weak, but usually I don’t notice any Swedish accent in his dialogue.

Finally, we now have from Sweden an amazing actor named Alicia Vikander, and she just won an Oscar for THE DANISH GIRL. I’ve heard her do British, Danish and American accents that are excellent. I also find her to be a superb actor.

Do you have any actors that you admire for their abilities to adopt various accents?

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 13, 2016 - 5:27 PM   
 By:   Morricone   (Member)

I was sitting in a theater half way through PUBLIC ENEMIES admiring Johnny Depp's performance when I said to myself "I've seen the lead actress playing Billie somewhere before". Indeed at the end when I saw the credits and realized it was the French actress Marion Cotillard who had won the Oscar for LA VIE EN ROSE it blew my mind. Talk about accents!

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 13, 2016 - 6:27 PM   
 By:   Christopher Kinsinger   (Member)

The first time I watched L.A. Confidential, I had never seen Russell Crowe or Guy Pearce before. Their American accents were so perfect. I had no idea that they're both Australian! Later, when I heard them interviewed and listened to their normal Aussie accents, I was doubly impressed with their acting ability!

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 13, 2016 - 11:30 PM   
 By:   joan hue   (Member)

I agree with Morricone and Chris. Cotillard is a stunning actress and skilled at accents. Loved Pearce and Crowe in L.A. Confidential and was surprised to find out they were Australians. Crowe sounded very American in A Beautiful Mind.

I know Colin Farrell is Irish, but you wouldn't know that by watching him in True Detective.

 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 12:02 AM   
 By:   Bill Carson, Earl of Poncey   (Member)

Hi joan, my favourite is james mason. To hear him doing a chinese accent in Genghis Khan - you just wouldnt know he wasnt a native! wink

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 6:49 AM   
 By:   Hurdy Gurdy   (Member)

Sean Connery!! What range! (sorry Joan..Bill started it) smile

 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 6:51 AM   
 By:   Solium   (Member)

Jamie Bamber (from Battlestar Galactica) Never knew he was British until I saw him in an interview.

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 8:27 AM   
 By:   Tall Guy   (Member)

Sean Connery!! What range! (sorry Joan..Bill started it) smile


Dick van Dyke! Keanu Reeves!

Also apologies to Joan, but I didn't want to feel left out.

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 8:54 AM   
 By:   Rameau   (Member)

Sean Connery!! What range! (sorry Joan..Bill started it) smile

Good for Sean, he even played an Arab Sheik with a Scots accent & got away with it. I mostly like the big stars to keep their own voices, it's usually a big part of their charisma. A really good English accent was Spike in Buffy, he really fooled me.

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 9:04 AM   
 By:   joan hue   (Member)

Rameau, you beat me by about 5 minutes with your Spike reference. He had a great British accent.

Solium, I had to look up Jamie Bamber. I don't know him.

I'm wondering right now if I should hit the "abuse" button and report certain Brits for being smart alecks. Aww, I guess not. They help me with my Learn Tolerance Skills. wink

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 10:38 AM   
 By:   lars.blondeel   (Member)

Damian Lewis sounds very American, and he's British !

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 11:09 AM   
 By:   The Wanderer   (Member)

Cate Blanchett does a very good English accent. There was some American actress in a film i watched recently who did a prefect English accent, i just can't recall who it was, but i was well impressed.

In Game of Thrones some of the Scottish actors do good northern English accents, though they're not exactly specific to a town or city, they sound convincing enough.

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 1:19 PM   
 By:   Tall Guy   (Member)



I'm wondering right now if I should hit the "abuse" button and report certain Brits for being smart alecks. Aww, I guess not. They help me with my Learn Tolerance Skills. wink



You're welcome smile

On topic, Davids Tennant and Barrowman had me fooled.

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 1:35 PM   
 By:   Preston Neal Jones   (Member)

Two names leapt immediately to (my) mind, the first being Hugh Laurie as House -- but then, it's often been said that as a general rule Brits are more successful at portraying Americans than vice versa. Obviously, as with any rule, there are exceptions, (such as Renee Zellweiger's lovelorn Bridget Jones).

The second name that occurs to me is Robert Mitchum, who had a genuine gift for a variety of accents, none of which had he ever formally studied. (For openers, see THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and CAPE FEAR, among many other southerner roles, THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER, and RYAN'S DAUGHTER.) His HUNTER director, Charles Laughton, told Esquire magazine about the time he expressed to Mitchum his trepidation at the prospect of playing southern Senator Seeb Cooley in ADVISE AND CONSENT. "I told him, 'Bob, it's as if you had to play a Cockney.' He answered me in a perfect Cockney accent, 'You bull-necked son of a bitch, what makes you think I can't play a Cockney?'"

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 6:19 PM   
 By:   joan hue   (Member)

Preston, I also think Brits play Americans better than vice versa. I also think the ones mentioned that I know like Laurie, Blanchett and Barrowman have been great. When I watched Homeland, I thought Damien Lewis was American. Big shock.

Robert Mitchum is one I would have never thought of, but his southern accents were good.

 
 Posted:   Jul 14, 2016 - 6:23 PM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

Australian actress Judy Davis can do a fine American accent, as she did in Naked Lunch, Husbands and Wives, Deconstructing Harry, Celebrity, and To Rome with Love.

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 15, 2016 - 8:43 AM   
 By:   joan hue   (Member)

With Crowe, Pearce and now Judy Davis, I should have added Australians to my list of actors who do excellent accents.

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 15, 2016 - 9:21 AM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

Carroll O'Connor could do a terrific English accent. And Al Pacino did the absolute best fake Cuban accent.

 
 Posted:   Jul 15, 2016 - 9:58 AM   
 By:   Sean Nethery   (Member)

I always admired Peter Sellers' ability to do accents, both broadly and more realistically, and always sound right for the role (from farce to drama) and not just a Brit put-on. He knew when to play it up and when to pull it back. His flat American accent in Being There is such an important aspect of his affectless speech as Chance the Gardener, a role I find deeply troubling (and wonderful).

John Lithgow does excellent comic-opera accents when called for - Southern in Obsession, Italian in Buckaroo Banzai, British in Cliffhanger, etc.

I'm a little surprised I'm the first to mention Christian Bale - even to doing his American accent for press junkets for the Dark Knight movies. I'm to the point I'm not sure what his real accent even is.

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 15, 2016 - 1:23 PM   
 By:   lars.blondeel   (Member)

Carroll O'Connor could do a terrific English accent. And Al Pacino did the absolute best fake Cuban accent.


Not sure which accent Pacino used, but it was everything except Cuban wink

 
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